6:00 am: After being woken by the seat-removal fairy on Friday at 5 am, I finally gave up and rolled out of bed.
I needed to complete my submission for my writing workshop that meets on Monday evenings. If I could go back and change one thing, I'd have completed this earlier in the week . . . well, with the phone nonsense and the unplanned phone-delivery/watch-Reg-play trip to Indiana - how? Or I'd wait till Sunday and send my chapter out late and bring copies for anyone who didn't have time to print it in advance. This took about three hours. There's no rushing the creative process, right?
9:00 am: I made three loaves of pumpkin bread, stuck it in the oven, and went for a run. During my run, Rae called. There was no choir after school. Damn.
Choir practice is after school, then a driver provided by DCFS transports the girls to therapy and drops them home at 6:30 pm. This is a short respite for Coach and I. What would we do with them in the gap between school and the driver's arrival with me heading out of town in the afternoon? We needed to pivot. I had to reach out to the school and the driver to adjust. It was ONE MORE THING.
After my run, I really wanted to shower, but tackled an item on the list. I made two loaves of Irish soda bread.
11:00 am: Lad showed up to help me set up/educate me on my iPhone. This was nice, but not well timed. His visit, while a 'working visit' slowed my breakneck speed pace. His two dogs came along for shits and giggles, and they hung out on the deck. I had to say hello to Finnegan. He could see me thru the slider and he thinks I'm his mother. Now I was glad I hadn't showered, because slobber-ville.
(short video of Lad's two dogs on our deck while the neighbor's German Shephard circles. Finnegan is more interested in getting love from the neighbor. The white and black dog is Ronan, Lad's other dog - he bought after he moved out).
11:30 am: I started cutting the avocado for the cowboy caviar, deciding to shower after Lad left.
After Lad programmed my texts to train whistle, because I couldn't differentiate texts and emails, he loaded drinks into 3 big coolers. I hopped in the shower. Coach was stopping home on his lunch hour to load the van with whatever was ready. I had Lad text him and ask him to get another 20 lb bag of ice.
At this point, I still thought I was managing my time well. Disillusioned much? I'd like to go back and tell myself to get my ass out of bed at 5 am, because TIME.
1:30 pm: Coach had been home for about an hour. He and Lad loaded 3 coolers, 3 tables, and 6 chairs into the van. Lad, "Who sits at a tailgate?" I wasn't interested in a debate. One cooler is missing the valve, so it leaks. They spent a good deal of time creating a stopper to fill the drainage hole. (note to self: order a new stopper valve if possible).
Coach and I discussed leaving girls at school to await driver, or him bringing them home and me alerting driver of where they'd be. It took 2 calls to the school to straighten this out. Then Coach raced off, saying he planned to attend mass at the girls' school followed by a 1st quarter award ceremony. Kay thought she was getting an award.
2:00 pm: I ran to my folks' house to borrow another folding table and dropped off a plate of Irish soda bread.
I assembled the 7 layer taco dip - all veggies were already chopped, yeah. Oh, the tomatoes that Coach chopped the night before froze in the bowl. Lately, if something touches the back of the fridge it freezes. Worried they'd be mushy, I chopped more tomatoes.
* My goal had been to be mostly ready when Curly got home from school. Earlier in the week Curly balked at swapping her 7th period study hall with her 8th period AP Bio class, because she hoped to study for AP Bio test during study hall.
Me: Here's an idea: what if you skip your late night viewing of Gilmore Girls and use that time to study?
I mean . . . C'mon, what's so hard?
*****
OK, I really wanted to share the whole saga in one post, but I'm trying not to be too lengthy. Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion. I don't mean to be demanding, but I do hope you return for the wrap up.
Please come back. Now I'm groveling.
Does your fridge arbitrarily freeze things? Do you sometimes think you have a workable schedule for food prep before a party only to find that you have NO idea how long things will take?
My fridge might freeze things on the back left top shelf. (It's where the cold air comes in.) So no more carrots or strawberries on the top shelf. Only things like syrup or Seltzer, where the extra cold doesn't affect it much.
ReplyDeleteYou still manage to fit in so much! Thanks for the dig video. I know you don't miss Finnegan in your basement, but it's good to see him- such a beauty.
mbmom11 - My fridge isn't that old. 2017. This is a new development and it's annoying. I wish I had better control over where things land in the fridge, but as of yet I have not mastered that.
DeleteI cannot remember the last time I saw Finnegan, so this was quite the reunion. Ronan jumped off of our deck in the spring and then I gave Lad some unwelcome feedback (unrelated to his dog getting off of our deck) and he distanced himself. He is a beautiful dog. I love Ronan's coloring and he's so soft, but he doesn't know me like Finn does and I'm OK with that. I wish they were both better behaved, but not my deal. That German Shepard 'plays' with Finn, but it always made me super nervous. He was really rough and very nippy. Might be normal, but I'm happy to have the deck barrier divide them.
Yes, my fridge will freeze items pushed really far back, but I’m not turning down the temperature. I feel as though I spend 50% of my day with meal prep. It takes a long time to make meals from scratch.
ReplyDeleteBijoux - I think it is things pushed to the back - maybe only on the middle shelf. It happened to my hard boiled eggs and that was irritating. Meal prep is a time suck and I've really been enjoying the every-other-night chili rotation since the tailgate. Easy.
DeleteMy crisper drawer randomly freezes things. Ugh. So does the bottom shelf in the back. I'm sick of it, but oh well. The last thing I'm doing is replacing a fridge right now. Impossible. And I'm with Bijoux--meal prep feels like a full time job anymore.
ReplyDeleteNance - That takes crisp to the next level, right? My fridge is Thermador and was new with the addition in '17, so why the malfunction? Grrr. Last night was a chili leftover night, so tonight I have to whip up something. Our grocery store has not had the frozen, individually wrapped, boneless skinless chicken breasts that I use most of the time, so I don't have chicken in the freezer for dinner. Hmmm.
DeleteOur garage fridge freezes things if they get to the back. We just put a line up of water bottles in there. They freeze, get used as ice packs when we camp, and then get replaced- the circle of life.
ReplyDeleteMy 17 year old is also in the middle of a Gilmore Girls re-watch. She just finished Gray's Anatomy, and immediately went into Gilmore Girls.
Kara - That is such a smart way to manage a back of fridge freezing tendency. If only I had space for a row of water bottles. We used to have a fridge in the freezer, but with Chicago winters it struggled to maintain the right temperatures.
DeleteCurly tried to get Mini sucked into Gilmore Girls when she was home. Mini will watch, but she finds Rory whiney and annoying. I watched that show here and there when it was fresh. It's funny to see Curly embrace it so much. She says she will rewatch it with her teen daughter some day. Ha.
I can't wait for the wrap up! I am loving the chaos of your life, even if you are not sometimes! Haha, Lad and the phone sounds exactly like something my brother would do, try to be helpful, but have bad timing about it!! You gotta love them, but they don't always look at the whole picture. My brother gets in these rabbit holes with my parents and I am like dude, you need to do one thing at a time, and let them master it before moving to step two. He is very enthusiastic though.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I would think I have accomplished enough for one day just doing one of those things!
ReplyDeleteSomething did freeze in my fridge a few months ago - maybe strawberries? It hasn't happened again so hoping it was a one time freak thing!
Whew! That was a whirlwind of a day, Ernie! Isn't it annoying when things freeze in the refrigerator! Our does it sometimes for no apparent reason.
ReplyDeletePhew, I am exhausted just reading this... but you had to live through it... I'll be back for the conclusion for sure ;)
ReplyDeleteGood golly Miss Molly! The first thing I let go when super busy is preparing food. HA. Not you----you add in MORE to prepare.
ReplyDeleteI have an area that I found out freezes stuff and by stuff, it froze a giant Costco sized container of spring mix salad. womp womp